[It’s another MadMariner feature from a few weeks back. —Tim]
The folks at Rose Point Navigation Systems have released a beta of the new Coastal Explorer 2010 product. Navagear readers already know that I use Coastal Explorer 2009 aboard my boat. So my "executive summary" of Coastal Explorer 2010 should come as no surprise: the best navigation software on the market is getting better.
No, I’m not paid by Rose Point. My only compensation is that I get free software to test and review, which I then put to use aboard my boat, if I like it. And I like it. Of course, I am obligated to remind readers that this discussion encompasses my experience with unreleased beta software that may or may not include all the features discussed.
So what’s new in Coastal Explorer 2010?
The list of new features is actually quite short. Jeff Hummel, Rose Point’s Director of Sales and Marketing, explains why: "It’s not about features, features, features. It’s about making the features you already have better and easier to use."
One of the biggest challenges in updating software applications is creating more functionality without adding complexity and confusion. This is one reason many older, well-established programs can be so hard to use. Rose Point has chosen invest a lot of time and thought into simplifying the user interface, addressing real user needs in ways that require only a small number of steps to accomplish any given task. The general idea is that tools and features that are used the most should require the fewest number of mouse clicks.
At the same time, the features that are new remain consistent with Rose Point’s goal of making useful information more easily available to boaters. Examples include support for cruising guides such as the Atlantic Cruising Club’s Marina Guides, and new weather options such as support for XM WX weather, NEXRAD weather radar data, and upcoming AIS weather and conditions broadcasts. Other features include better planning tools and enhanced tracking, as well as direct support for NMEA 2000 data.
NEW PLANNING MODE
The Planning Mode screen has been completely redesigned to make it easier to find the commands you need, when you need them. The new interface design is oriented around tasks such as planning routes, managing marks on the chart, maintaining a ship’s log, getting information from guide books, and checking weather, tide, and current conditions. Almost all these features were present in the 2009 product, but now it’s easy to find them when you want them.
Gone, for instance, is the old Navigation Objects menu. That menu was, in my opinion, the most frustrating element of Coastal Explorer 2009. It contained all the things I wanted, but sometimes it seemed to require more hunting and more clicking than was strictly necessary.
In its place are a series of tabs across the top of the screen: Home, Voyage Plan, Marks, Ship’s Log, Guide Book, Conditions, Tracking.
[The new tabs across the top of the Planning Mode interface group features in intuitive ways that help users find what they're after, without cluttering up the screen. Notice, too, that the weather forecast includes a blue polygon highlighting the zone covered by the text forecast currently displayed. When you exit the forecast display, the zone polygon and borders disappear, cleaning up the chart as you go.]
How do I know the new interface works better? The fact that I always find what I want before it occurs to me to ask "What have they done with the old reliable Navigation Objects menu?" I’m one of those people who only reads manuals after I’ve exhausted every other possibility. The fact that I don’t even know what kind of manual accompanies the beta should serve as another indication of the usability improvements in this update.
DIVING IN
Let’s look at one kind of voyage planning in more detail. I wrote about Coastal Explorer 2.0′s Timeline feature two years ago. Here’s how it works: Once you’ve created a route and set your vessel’s anticipated cruising speed for each leg of the trip, you can associate each leg of the route with the appropriate tidal current station. Yes, you have to do this by hand. The software can determine which current station is closest to your route, but if it happens to be in a completely separate body of water on the opposite side of some ribbon of land, "closest" may not be "best."
Anyway, once that’s done, you can slide your route left or right along the timeline to adjust your departure and arrival times. If you need to arrive at a particular waypoint at a specific time, you can slide that waypoint left or right along the timeline to align it with the time you want to arrive. All the other waypoints along the timeline slide with it, so you can see when you need to leave, and, even better, what kind of tidal current you’re likely to encounter along each segment of the trip.
[The upper Timeline illustrates a bad time to make this passage. Envision your vessel traveling from left to right, 'forward' in both time and space. The large purple arrows pointing to the left represent contrary current. The lower Timeline shows a much better time to make this passage. You'll avoid most of the strongest currents, except near the end of the trip, and even that bit of current is moving in the right direction.]
This was a great feature, but even I didn’t use it very often, because it required a lot of click
ing and fiddling. Coastal Explorer 2010 streamlines the setup process a bit; I especially like the little arrows that point from the route leg to the location of the current station you’ve selected. Once you’ve got the Timeline configured, making use of it is much easier than before, and I suspect users will find themselves referring to it much more often than they did before.
[Cruise Mode will look pretty familiar to Coastal Explorer veterans, although the miniature Orientation, Go To Boat, Scale, and Info controls along the right edge of each chart view are new.]
In comparison, the Cruise Mode screen is relatively unchanged. This interface had already been pretty well streamlined, and was already a joy to use. Even here, though, a few tweaks help refine the experience. I like the new miniature Orientation, Go To Boat, Scale, and Info controls along the right side of the chart. I also like the way the cursor position status bar at the top of each chart functions. It would take about two paragraphs to explain the subtle behavior enhancements, whereas it only takes about two seconds to comprehend what’s happening and appreciate the improved user experience.
If you’re already a Coastal Explorer user, I’m confident you’ll find that it’s even easier to accomplish your primary tasks, and you may find that you use a few features you didn’t before, even though they were already there. If you’ve never tried Coastal Explorer, you’ll find that it does everything you would expect from a navigation software application, and it does it all better and more easily than the competitors.
Don’t take my word for it, though. I urge you to try them out. Don’t let somebody else demo the software for you. Sit down yourself and create a multi-waypoint route. Then change the route, adding a little side trip in the middle somewhere. Even if you only have about five minutes with each product, you’ll learn a lot about good user interface design.
